ASPI: Frequently Asked Questions

About ASPI

The Access to Specialized Patent Information (ASPI) program was developed as a private-public partnership by the World Intellectual Property Organization in cooperation with its partners LexisNexis, Minesoft, Questel, Thomson Reuters and WIPS. The aim of this partnership is to support developing countries in more fully exploiting their innovative potential by leveraging the valuable information contained in patent documents to develop new solutions to technical problems faced at the local and international levels.

Registration

If your institution meets the eligibility criteria, please complete the online registration form. Only one registration is required per institution. Please ensure that all of the fields in the registration form are completed with the information requested. Failure to complete all of the fields in the form may result in delays in processing your institution’s application.

Once the completed registration form has been received by WIPO, you will receive an Institution User License for signature by the director and chief librarian or information officer (as appropriate) of your institution. The Institution User License outlines the rights and responsibilities associated with participation in ASPI.

Once the signed Institution User License has been received by WIPO, you will be contacted by the provider of the patent database service(s) you have selected. The provider may require your institution to agree to the terms and conditions for use of its database service and will provide you with the login details required to access the service.

In general, an email confirming receipt of your completed registration form will be sent to you within a few days of submission. If you do not receive such an email, please verify that you have provided an accurate email address for yourself and/or for your institution's director and chief librarian or information officer and check that the email confirming receipt of your completed registration form has not been treated as spam.

Payment

Eligible institutions in Group 2 countries receive access at a cost of 1100 Swiss francs for each account per calendar year (from January through December). The cost will be reduced to 1000 Swiss francs from January 1, 2015.

Eligible institutions in Group 3 countries receive access at a cost of 3300 Swiss francs for each account per calendar year. The cost will be reduced to 3000 Swiss francs from January 1, 2015.

Eligible institutions in Group 1 countries receive access to all database services at no cost.

Eligible institutions in Group 2 countries can request a free trial account for each patent database service for a period of up to 12 months, provided that they have not previously had access to the patent database service concerned.

The participation fee is paid on an annual basis for the calendar year (from January through December). For example, if your institution's free trial period (for Group 2 countries) ends in February, your institution must pay the full participation fee in order to maintain access to your selected database services.

An email will be sent to your institution with an invoice containing payment instructions. If you do not receive the invoice, please verify that you have provided an accurate email address for yourself on the registration form and check that the email with the invoice has not been treated as spam.

In general the participation fee is paid by bank transfer. Payment instructions are provided by WIPO along with the invoices for Group 2 countries or by the database service provider(s) for Group 3 countries.

Getting started

In order to get started, you will need a computer connected to the Internet with a high-speed (56k baud rate or higher) connection. It is advisable to use an up-to-date version of your web browser in order to ensure full functionality of the selected database service(s).

Login details may be shared with any member of a registered institution (researchers, teaching and administrative staff, students). They should not be shared with visitors or posted on the internet.

Please note that login details are only valid for a single concurrent access to the associated database service. This means that, while one person is using a set of login details, it cannot be used at the same time by another person.

Access to the patent database services may only be provided from computers or other digital installations owned by or under the direct control of the institution or from personal computers owned personally by the employees, faculty or students of the institution.